St. Patrick's Day Party :)

Part of my "lovely" decorations

The other part of the "lovely" decorations...and Patrick :)

Had to make everything high enough so Owen wouldn't take it all down

I think they made this one just for him!!

Sporting his new, green, glasses

We have some very talented, awesome friends!! This cake was made by one of them! Thanks so much!

The inside

One of the 3 breakfast club guys

Casey and the balloons

FRIENDS!

So here is the story:
Patrick works 10-12 hour day 5-6 days a week.  Planning something for his 30th was VERY difficult!  I convinced him to get his actually birthday off so that he and I could do something.  We did get to go out to lunch and spend some time together.  He thought that we were just doing that and then having a couple over for games later.  We had dinner at my parents' house when I "forgot" my wallet.  So around 7:15 my mom calls and said that I left my wallet and that dad needed help moving something.  Patrick said sure he would go.  Right when he left I/we got to work!  I had told everyone ahead of time what the plan was and to be there at a specific time.  They were all GREAT at getting the timing right too!  15 min later he came in like this.  Totally surprised and mad that he was carrying all this stuff...lol.  Thanks to all our friend who made this possible!  It was a blast!

The Breakfast Club

Evil Patrick

Beautiful green cake with lots of green food coloring!!

MORE FRIENDS!

EVEN MORE FRIENDS!

Patrick said to me later that night after everyone left that he didn't know how he was going to top that next year for my 30th. He says he's not that creative and can't keep secrets.  So now you all know and maybe someone can help him next year...not that I really want anything anyway ;)

Thinking...

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately.  There are 2 things in my life right now that are pretty big and I kind of want them now!  I've been praying about them and doing research on them and...nothing.  The only thing that keeps coming up is patience.  Now for me, normally, this is not a hard thing.  Just about everything I've had to wait for.  But these 2 things I've been waiting a long time for.  I don't know if I've just been waiting long enough that "I" feel like it's time or that other people around me are getting them and I'm not and I just think it's not fair. I don't know.  I'm sure it will all make sense in the end but for now it's driving me NUTS!! The kids got their CD from church a little while ago and it's the only CD I play in the car now.  Maybe I need to put what I want in the Lords hands and know that whatever is suppose to happen will happen.  I guess this is a big test of faith, patience, trust and endurance.  I haven't ever wrote anything like this before but it's such a big part of my life right now that I have to vent to someone...or something, even if no one reads this.  It feels good to put it out there.

PS...I'm not going to say what the things are until they happen, so don't ask. :)

MARRIAGE

I found this on one of my friends blogs and had to try it out.  I was surprised by some answers and happy with others.  Nellie is 7 and Samantha is 5.  Enjoy :)


1. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY? 
Nellie ~ Can you marry friends or people in your class?
Samantha ~ Pick one!

2. WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?Nellie ~ What age did you get married?  (then she said) How about 10!
Samantha ~ Big

3. HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED? 
Nellie ~ Because they kiss on the lips.
Samantha ~ Because it's on your phone.  (no clue)

4. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON? 
Nellie ~ You call each other names.
Samantha ~ I don't know?

5. WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE? 
Nellie ~ Go to the movie theater
Samantha ~ To the park.

6. WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE? 
Nellie ~ When you're married
Samantha ~ When you're married

7. IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED? 
Nellie ~ Married, so then you can spend time together.
Samantha ~ Married, because then you can kiss.

8. HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
Nellie ~ They would be sad because their wouldn't be any kids.
Samantha ~ You would get old.

9. HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK? 
Nellie ~ By wrapping my arms around them.
Samantha ~ True loves kiss!

Girl Scouts

 Nellie and Samantha have been daisy girls scouts for a few months now.  They love it and have met some new friends.  This past weekend they had their Investiture Ceremony.  They got their smocks, patches and pin.  They sang some song and had cake.  It was fun.  The leader is my friend and VERY good baker.  She made the cake with all the girls' names on it.  They had a great time.

Nellie getting her smock.

Samantha getting her smock

Awesome cake...yummy too!

All the girls

 They sang 2 songs but my battery died in the middle of the second one...oh well. :)

* Kid Fun *

Kids in their Christmas shirts, bell necklaces and elf hat :)

Owen was screaming and got taken away before the picture was taken.

All the fun stuff the girls made at school this season.

Little late ;)

So I know that this is really late, but oh well. We spent halloween with the missionaries. We had a blast carving pumpkins, playing games and making fun halloweeny food.
These are my awesome nails (if I do say so myself) that even I couldn't believe were real. They looked so fake, and yes I did them myself!!
Our lovely family picture. Patrick was a HUGE personal trainer, Samantha and I were witches, Nellie was the tooth fairy and Owen was a dog.

~UTAH~

Patrick and I have been married for almost 8 years and we have never gone a real vacation. We've gone over night before but this time was 10 days in Utah. We got to stay with my brother and his family at their new house and see other family members. We ran into friends and people we knew that are on their missions. It was a busy and fun time. Here are just a few of the things that we did. Enjoy! :)
So for the first time in our married life we went out to dinner as a whole family! We've gone with other family members but never alone. My brother found the place on line and we are so glad! There was only one other family there, we went at 5pm, so we basically had the place to ourselves. It was a Chinese place and they didn't really speak English. They were the nicest people and the food was the best!! Too bad they don't have one in Oregon. Our hostess even held Owen for about 30 min so we could both eat. She walked him around and showed him the kitchen. It was great. Then we tipped her really well and she got mad at us, kind of. So she gave us a ton of fortune cookies. :)
2 Elders that we had in the Tigard ward are in Utah going to school so we met up with them for ice cream. They picked the place and I don't even remember the name of it, but the ice cream was HUGE!!!! We didn't know it was going to be that big or we wouldn't have all gotten one. It was good though and we had fun meeting up and talking with them.
We went to Antelope Island. Alright, I'm not going to lie. The drive across was NASTY!! The smell is enough to kill any living thing, and I think there was some dead stuff along the way. But once we got to the Island itself the smell was gone, it was weird. There were "biso" as Nellie called them...bison. We were right up to a few of them. Very cool. But the view was so beautiful! I tried to get some good picts but they didn't turn out as good as in person. Oh well.
Inside the North Visitors Center. It was an awesome experience in there. There weren't very many people there so we got royal treatment from the sister missionaries. :)

The Salt Lake Temple was beautiful. Patrick and I got to do a session while my brother and sister-in-law watched the kids...thanks! It was so fun to walk around Temple square and see everything. I was worried that the kids wouldn't like it but they actually had a great time. Glad we went.

We went to the Hill Air Force Base. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever! Owen loved all the huge airplanes.
Nellie and Samantha both went rock climbing...and loved it!!
Overall we had a great trip. We did a lot of "firsts" and won't ever forget it. Thanks to Kyle and Maria for letting us crash at your house, you saved us tons!!